Hydrogen Atmospheres in the Absence of Thermodynamic Equilibrium. III. The Emission of Radiation

Abstract

Well-known theories of the profile and intensity of spectral lines are fist extended to lines involving a number of degenerate substates and under conditions where thermodynamic equilibrium does not apply. It is shown that much information can be obtained from an effective temperature and the absorption coefficient, and these two properties are then tabulated for the Lα, Lβ, and Hα lines of hydrogen. The physical conditions considered cover electron concentrations from 10⁸ to 10¹³ per cc., gas temperatures from 7.5 x 10³ to 1.0X 10⁶ °K., and incident black-body radiation (5000 °K.) diluted by a factor 1, 0.5, or 0.